CURANDERO-Team | ricardodaguiar

CURANDERO

No culture has a monopoly on knowledge

PRODUCER & CO-DIRECTOR

Valentina Homem is a filmmaker and visual artist holding an MFA in Film and Media Arts at Temple University (2016). She was a 2016 Flaherty Seminar fellow. Valentina wrote, produced, directed and edited the short films Granny, (best film at Zemos98 2004), Speak Up!, Landscaping, With a Camera, The Power of Body Movements, New Order and Brocolis - all of which screened at international festivals and conferences. Between 2007 and 2011, Valentina was a producer and director of second unity for several feature documentaries and TV Series (Discovery Channel, BBC, Telesur, TVN Chile). Her most recent short film Abigail has premiered at the Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2016 and has since been selected to over 20 film festivals around the world, including Festival dei Popoli (Italy), Habana Film Festival (Cuba), Vila do Conde (Portugal) and Bogoshorts (Colombia).

Ricardo D'Aguiar is a Brazilian multimedia professional and Chevening scholar with an MA in Media and International Development from the University of East Anglia. He has worked with large media companies and human rights organizations in over 25 countries. Ricardo was a postproduction manager in Brussels for RTBF for two years and in Rio for five years, overseeing work for clients such as Google, Nike and Globo. He is the director of Takiwasi: House of Healing (82'), Palestinian Summer School (23') and Feminism: Speak Up! (23', with Valentina Homem). Ricardo is also a media consultant and has given workshops and training courses in South America, Europe and the Middle East. His work in video art has been presented iin several festivals and has earned awards both in Brazil and internationally.

DIRECTOR, EDITOR

& CINEMATOGRAPHER

ANTHROPOLOGIST EXPERT

CONSULTANT

Miroslav Horak is a social and cultural anthropologist, ecologist and philologist. He specializes in ethnobotany and phytotherapy. Currently works as a research assistant at the Department of Languages and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno. In his research on drug addiction treatment in a cross-cultural perspective, he compares therapeutic programs in Peru, Nicaragua and the Czech Republic. Amazonian Traditional Medicine has been a subject of his professional interest since 2007. He is the author and editor of several books, including The House of Song (2013), A Reader in Ethnobotany and Phytotherapy (2014) or Etnobotánica y Fitoterapia en América (2015). His publications are available online at: https://mendelu.academia.edu/hmiro

Ilana Berlowitz holds a PhD in Psychology from the unit of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Dr Berlowitz investigates traditional Amazonian medicine and its therapeutic applications in the context of substance use disorders. Her main field research was conducted in the Takiwasi Center for addiction treatment and rehabilitation in Tarapoto, Peru. This unique work was accomplished in partnership with the University of Neuchatel and the University of Zurich/ETH, Switzerland. Her research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.